some pics from the last couple of months

Happy New Year!

Some winter pics (for our holiday card):

Kestrel on her way to the bus one morning in the fall (our house in the background):

In the Butterfly Garden at the Strong Museum of Play (Veteran's Day):

Kestrel at one of the swim meets early in the season (late October):

spring break, selling a house, birthdays, and so on

A lot has been happening in our lives lately. The kids are on their third week of spring break right now. Right before break we worked hard to get the house ready to go on the market. The kids and I left for Rochester to spend their first week of break with Paul. The house went up for sale while we were gone, and we ended up getting an offer on our house within the first few days. This is a very good thing. The inspection was last week, and so far things are working out. The one down side to this offer is the buyers want to close early May, which is much earlier than the kids and I were planning to move. More on that later.

We had a great time with Paul in Rochester. I took the kids around exploring the city most of the week. We went to the Strong Museum of Play, the Seneca Park Zoo, The Rochester Museum and Science Center, saw Dinosaurs Alive at the Planetarium and even got a peak at the beach and Lake Ontario (the kids had a hard time believing it was a lake and not an ocean). We also had a lot of fun swimming in the pool in Paul's apartment building. We started looking at houses out there but didn't find our house just yet. We stayed with Paul for over a week (stopping to see family in Cleveland on both ends of the trip).

Our moving plans are to stay in this area through June, so that the kids can finish school and attend some camp in June. There is a 4H overnight camp that Kestrel has been looking forward to since last summer so we promised her we would work it out so she could still attend. The folks buying our house were pretty firm that they wanted to close early May, so that means the kids and I need to find temporary housing for May and June. I ended up finding a 3 bedroom furnished apartment in the area that will let us take a 3 month lease. It is an apartment complex geared towards students, but will work out well for our situation. I can't believe we'll be packing up and moving out of this house in less than a month!

Paul was in town with us this past weekend, which was great because we got to help him celebrate his 44th birthday. We had a nice family dinner out and the kids and I had a cake for him (Kestrel insisted we had to get Daddy a carrot cake).

Here are a few pictures from Rochester and Paul's birthday:

At the Museum of Play, inside a giant kaleidoscope

Kestrel and Cooper (below) loved this "tippy room" (as we called it). The floor was sloped down, but all the visual cues made the room look level, so it created a kind of illusion that made you feel really dizzy, and like you were going to fall off the floor.

"On my way to where the air is sweet..."

The Museum of Play had a great Sesame Street exhibit.

Shopping (and cashiering) in a kid sized Wegman's Supermarket

Cooper with the Mastodon at the Museum and Science Center

Kestrel is riding on a hoover chair. It is actually floating on a cushion of air. Very cool!

They loved watching this miniature roller coaster.

We went back to the Museum of Play so we could take a picture of Flat Stanley there. After we got the picture, we discovered this cool city park next to it, so we stopped to explore the park.

Here is Kestrel with Flat Stanley at the beach. For a school geography project, she was supposed to take pictures of Flat Stanley (who is decorated like a Flat Kestrel) in various places around a new city.

We had a really nice day on Friday so we decided to check out the Seneca Park Zoo. .

These Arctic Wolves were our favorite animals in the zoo. They were just feeding them when we were getting ready to leave, so we stopped to watch them. The food was put in a closed box and the wolves were cautiously attacking the box to get at it. It was really interesting to watch the interactions between the two of them, named Niko and Luna.

Paul's birthday cake!

At Jupiter's for dinner

cleveland visit

Right now we are driving home from a few days in the Cleveland area where we got to spend some time with Paul's sister Debra's family and Paul's mom. The kids have a blast spending time with their cousins. This picture is in front of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

aye aye captain

Here's Cooper driving the tugboat yesterday at our local children's science museum. He was asking to go to the museum so I took him yesterday while Kestrel was at a friend's house. He just loves playing in the boat.

By the way, its 5 degrees outside as I write this. Brrrr.

greetings from boston

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is having a fun vacation week. We are in Boston right now visiting my family.

Kestrel had her last performance of "Miracle on 34th Street" Saturday evening and then we left Sunday to start the drive here. Unfortunately, we ended up trapped for hours on I-70 in IN due to a really bad multi-car accident. We were stuck, in stand-still traffic, on a closed section of highway Sunday afternoon for about 4.5 hours, until we finally had the guts to escape by driving through the median ditch and heading back in the other direction. We weren't sure if our van would make it (we saw one car get stuck in the ditch trying earlier) but it did. Go Odyssey! It was a frustrating situation, but the kids and the puppy were all being so good and patient, and we couldn't really complain knowing there were 3 people who lost their lives in the accident. We were mostly thankful to all be together and safe. We (and by we I mean Paul) drove straight through the night and arrived here at my parents house Monday afternoon.

Christmas morning we opened a few presents and relaxed here before heading over to my brother Stephen's house for Christmas with all my siblings, nieces and nephews. Paul surprised me with an awesome and unexpected present: a very cool sleek little notebook computer. So now I can take up a table for hours at Panera while I work on blog posts...

Today we ventured into the city and went to the Boston Children's Museum (where I took the pictures above on my phone). The kids had a great time, but it sure was crowded. We could have stayed even longer at the museum but had to get back home for Harrison. Speaking of Harrison, he's doing great for a 10 week old puppy in lots of strange houses. It's hard to believe we've only had him 2 1/2 weeks!

Tomorrow we make the drive to Cleveland, where we'll stay until New Years. Oh yeah, for everyone who has sent us cards this season, we love them and are sorry we haven't gotten any of our own out. Life's just been a bit busy lately. Who knows, maybe we'll send some out late.

cooper and friends

Cooper went to a classmate's birthday party at our local children's science museum. This museum is really small, but Cooper loves it there. They got a little hands on time with some of the resident animals. Here are some camera phone pictures.

Petting Windy the box turtle

Checking out Corney the corn snake

Cooper with his friends Olivia (middle) and Elise (on the right). By the way, Cooper often says he is going to marry Elise when he grows up.

I know I haven't updated this blog in the last couple of weeks, so I thought I'd share a few pictures of what we've been up to.

Tomorrow morning (actually in just a few hours) I leave for my long anticipated trip to St. Pete, FL with my girlfriends.

Cooper at the children's museum in Bloomington (OK - actually Normal) on Tuesday. I needed to get a number of errands done and I bribed him with a trip to the museum if he cooperated. He loves museums!

Kestrel watching Cooper's T-ball game a couple of weeks ago.

Cooper batting at his last T-ball practice a couple weeks ago.

A couple of weeks ago I had to take my car to the dealership in Danville (long story) and Cooper came with me. He kept asking if we could go to a museum when we were there. I guess to him, going out of town often means going to a museum. I kept trying to explain that I didn't think there were any museums in Danville, but he kept begging, "try to find one, mommy, try!" Well, I happened to drive by a small building with a sign that said "Vermillion County Museum" out front, so we stopped. It was just a little museum with historical artifacts from Vermillion County, but Cooper was thrilled. The woman working in the museum seemed surprised we were there, but friendly. Here he is above with an old saddle in the museum.Cooper is standing in front of a mastodon skull in the museum. Its hard to tell from here, but it was huge.

Recently Kestrel's school had "Back To School Night". Her class sang some songs about bugs for the parents (they are studying insects). I know the picture is hard to see because the sun was shining right at me through the window, but I wanted to put it in because it makes me smile. Notice Kestrel is standing out in front of everyone? That wasn't planned. She just wanted to stand front and center, but the rest of the class all shied towards the back. That's our girl!

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll think about you while I'm sunning on the gulf coast...

indianapolis children's museum

Kezden, Cooper, Kestrel and Zanden pretending to be dinosaurs in the "Dinosphere"

Kestrel took this picture of T-Rex!

We took a trip to Indianapolis today to go to the Children's Museum. We were planning to meet up with some friends there. Unfortunately, we had some trouble getting out of the house this morning, and then got lost in Indy, so we made it there pretty late. I forgot my "real" camera, so these pictures were taken on my cell phone again. I think Kestrel does a better job with it then I do!

We only got to see a few exhibits, but they had a lot of fun anyway, especially playing around in the Dinosphere exhibit where they spent most of their time.

museum of science

We made it back to the Museum of Science today. We spent a couple of hours exploring the exhibits, including the Butterfly Garden. Cooper's favorite things at the museum were seeing the model space shuttle, and going into the capsule. Kestrel's favorite was "the spinny thing" in the Science in The Park exhibit.

chicago weekend

Kestrel on Paul's shoulders during the parade

Cooper on Dori's shoulders during the parade

Kestrel with Anna in the Doll Hair Studio at The American Girl Place

Eating Lunch in the Cafe

Kestrel and Anna just after lunch

We got home this evening from a nice weekend in Chicago. We drove up to the city Saturday, and discovered Saturday evening was the Magnificent Mile Lights Festival to kick off the holiday season. Before checking into our hotel, we took a walk around Michigan Avenue, including visiting the very crowded Disney Store where the kids both got balloons, and watching some ice sculptures being created. After checking in to the hotel Paul took the kids swimming in the hotel pool, then we went back out to Michigan Ave. to watch the lights procession, led by none other than Mickey Mouse himself. The procession lit the tree lights along the street as it travelled down the avenue with the crowd cheering as it went. After the procession we walked down to the river to see the fireworks. Unfortunately, Cooper was a bit scared by how loud the fireworks were, so I brought him a little ways down the street while Paul and Kestrel stayed to watch.

The next morning after a quick breakfast I took Kestrel and her doll Anna to the American Girl Place, which was a special treat in honor of Kestrel's upcoming birthday. We quickly put our name on the Cafe waiting list (I couldn't get a reservation in advance) and then brought Anna to the Doll Hair Studio to have her hair styled. Kestrel was so excited she got to pick the style and the colors for the hair ribbons. While we were there a photographer from the Cleveland Plain Dealer took some pictures of Kestrel. We then shopped around in the store and Kestrel picked out a new dress and coat for Anna. We didn't make it off the wait list for the early lunch (Kestrel was very disappointed), but we got on the wait list again for the later lunch. Then on to the Theater to see The American Girl Revue. The show was great, and Kestrel loved watching the American Girl stories on stage. After the show Kestrel go her picture taken with Anna in the Photo Studio, then we went back to the Cafe to see if we could get seated. We were lucky, and got the last table available. It was a great table, too. We were seated right next to the big tree decorated with pretty "sweet treat" ornaments. The lunch was fun and the food was good, too. Anna got her own seat and cup and saucer at the table. Kestrel said it was her favorite meal ever.

What a fun and special day we had! The only downside was that we lost Anna's new hat (that came with her coat) on the walk back from the store. Kestrel was sad, but fortunately I was able to order a replacement hat.

U-505 submarine at the Museum of Science and Industry

While we were at the American Girl Place Paul and Cooper had a great day together at the Museum of Science and Industry. For Cooper, the highlight of the museum was a real submarine he got to go in and explore. It was the only captured German Uboat in the United States. They got the enigma machine off of it to help them break the codes for the invasion of Normandy. Cooper got to practice piloting the submarine. He was a little bit scared by the depth charges, but still thought it was all very exciting. They told us all about it on the ride back to Champaign.